The subject disclosure relates to supply chain management, and more specifically, to blockchain ledgers for managing integrity of a supply chain.
Recent developments in supply chain management have led to the implementation of blockchains for supply chain integrity assurance. One such example is the open source platform Provenance created by Project Provenance Ltd. As stated in Building a better supply chain via the blockchain,” Daily Fintech (May 12, 2016), available online at https://dailyfintech.com/2016/05/12/building-a-better-supply-chain-via-the-blockchain: “[Provenance's] framework consists of a series of interoperable modules deployed onto the blockchain by various supply chain actors (Supplier, Manufacturer, Registrar, Standards Organisations, Certifiers and Auditors and finally Consumer), each able to access a fully auditable record of transactions for the product in question.”
Existing blockchain-based supply chain management solutions provide integrity management by means such as using tags to avoid counterfeiting; utilizing records of each point of transactions, billing contracts for various components, stock keeping unit (SKU) stamps, similar product identifiers, and/or other information to record a transaction at a point in the supply chain and its relevant subcomponents; etc. However, simply using billing and transaction records, packaging or additional markers, identifiers and/or tags on products, while useful in proving provenance, is not sufficient in many cases to ensure the integrity of a product and its associated supply chain. Further, such documentation is itself prone to counterfeiting. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for supply chain integrity management solutions that provide increased robustness and security.